The News Media Guild met with The Associated Press last Thursday to discuss the company’s economic wage proposal. NMG President Vin Cherwoo and Chief Negotiator Kevin Keane appeared in person with representatives with the company in New York, while Kim Kruesi, John Braunreiter, Bobby Calvan and Mike Warren attended over zoom.
Here is a summary of the meeting:
The Guild both started and ended the meeting stressing that the company’s wage proposal was out of touch and insulting. The Guild passed along comments that our members had given to us in response to seeing what the company came up with, but also detailed how much employees have lost due to crippling inflation and struggling under unacceptable wage stagnation.
For the rest of the meeting, the Guild mostly listed various information requests to get a better understanding of the company’s proposal. For example, we asked how much OT the company spent on Olympics coverage over the past several years to better understand why the company was seeking OT elimination for major international sports events.
We also asked:
- How many bureaus currently provide parking for employees at no additional cost to AP
- How much the company has paid out in penalty pay over the past year in light of the company wanting to make it easier to have employees work for free during off work hours.
The Guild also pressed the company on why they were offering adoptive parents more paid parental leave than non-birthing parents. The company’s attorney said it was to offer more “bonding” (the attorney literally used air quotes) for adoptive parents and that non-birthing parents wouldn’t need the extra time to recover like a birth mother might. However, the Guild continues to reject this argument and said if the company is willing to provide eight weeks of short-term disability to adoptive parents then it should also be able to do so for non-birthing parents. The company also had no answer about how families who use surrogates would fall under this new policy.
The meeting ended on a slightly tense note with the company attempting to fiercely defend its proposal, saying that 2% raises over the next three years is competitive and positive because employees have not faced a spike in health insurance premiums for several years. The Guild responded that 2% raises do nothing to address inflation and does not help employee wage stagnation.
We also pointed out that employees are leaving the company for higher paying jobs at an alarming pace.
The next meeting is Wednesday, when the Guild plans on submitting its own economic wage proposal.